FORTIFIED Home™ Resources

FORTIFIED Home™ standards, technical summaries, and other documentation are now available in one place, including building requirements, roofing requirements, specific program elements and program benefit information. Make sure your structure fulfills the superior building standards for FORTIFIED Home and can withstand severe weather using the publications below.

Standards and Technical Bulletins

FORTIFIED Home standards address all technical information and installation requirements for Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of designation.

Guidelines

Technical Requirement Summaries

The FORTIFIED program offers flexibility and varying price points through a combination of three designation levels that build upon each other: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The following documents provide an overview of the requirements for each designation level according to the appropriate hazard.

Related Research

Fact Sheets, Brochures & Mailers

Perfect point-of-sale or leave-behind overview pieces. You can insert your company logo, name, and additional company information into these printer-ready documents. For assistance with co-branding any of these materials, please contact Brent Henzi at bhenzi@ibhs.org / (813) 675-1035.

Videos

What is FORTIFIED?

Getting the Roof Right

Why Strong Roofs Matter

Promotional Resources

Car Magnet

FORTIFIED Home™ Evaluators must receive approved artwork from IBHS, including their Evaluator ID number, to print their own magnet(s) to display on their auto (car/truck). To request a magnet, please contact Mary Tavarez at mtavarez@ibhs.org.

FORTIFIED Wise™ Training Seal

Those who have earned a FORTIFIED Wise™ credential (Associate or Professional) must request approved artwork from IBHS to use for their marketing purposes. To request a seal, please contact Mary Tavarez at mtavarez@ibhs.org.

Sample News Releases

[City, State] [(Date)] – [ORGANIZATION] today announced it has joined in support of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s (IBHS) FORTIFIED Home™ program. [ORGANIZATION] will work to make our communities more resilient by improving the ability of our nation’s homes to resist severe weather by promoting FORTIFIED Home’s voluntary severe storm protection system upgrades.

“[ORGANIZATION] is pleased to support FORTIFIED Home™,” said [NAME], [TITLE] “We believe in strengthening our communities and will continue to demonstrate our commitment to help our customers protect what is priceless.”

In support of FORTIFIED Home™, [ORGANIZATION] will:

Help spread the word about the importance of resilience to our staff, customers, partners and community.

Support FORTIFIED Home™ by [include ways organization plans to support FORTIFIED Home™].

“Improving the ability of our nation’s homes to withstand severe weather is critical to protecting what is priceless and strengthening our communities,” said Fred Malik, Director of FORTIFIED Programs at IBHS. “From the roof to the foundation, FORTIFIED Home™ allies are leading the way by making the homes where we live stronger, safer and more durable.”

FORTIFIED Home™ was introduced by IBHS in 2010 as a voluntary set of home upgrades. Today, FORTIFIED Homes are being built in many of America’s coastal communities.

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[ORGANIZATION BOILERPLATE]
About the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific research and communications organization supported by the property insurance industry. The organization works to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other risks on residential and commercial property by conducting building science research and advocating improved construction, maintenance and preparedness practices. Visit DisasterSafety.org for more information about creating resilient communities and the FORTIFIED Home program.

[Company/Organization Name] Endorses FORTIFIED Homes™ in [Location]

[City, State] [(Date)] – [ORGANIZATION] today announced it strongly endorses building new houses and retrofitting existing houses using the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s (IBHS) FORTIFIED Home™ construction standards. Homes built and retrofitted to these standards will be stronger and safer, and the communities in which they are located will be more resilient in the face of natural disasters.

FORTIFIED Home™ provides a uniform, voluntary, superior set of standards to help improve a home’s resilience by adding system-specific upgrades to minimum code requirements. The FORTIFIED Home™ program has three levels of designation – Bronze, Silver and Gold. Home buyers and homeowners are able to choose the desired level of protection that best suits their budgets and resilience goals.

[Quote from company/organization about FORTIFIED Home]

[Builders, contractors and others can include specifics about how they will implement FORTIFIED]

“We are very pleased [company/organization name] is supportive of IBHS’ FORTIFIED Home™program. The construction standards our engineers have established for this program will result in more disaster-resistant communities where they are implemented. These are the communities that will recover faster after disasters and will not require as much post-disaster government aid,” said Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO.

“Individual homeowners with FORTIFIED homes will have peace of mind knowing when the storm passes, they will be able to return home again,” noted Rochman.

FORTIFIED Home™ will:

protect what is priceless by safeguarding the things that make a house a home;

reduce the potential for property damage to homes from hurricanes; and

improve the marketability of the home with a transferable FORTIFIED Home™–Hurricane designation.

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[ORGANIZATION BOILERPLATE]

About the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)

IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific research and communications organization supported by the property insurance industry. The Institute works to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other risks on residential and commercial property by conducting building science research and advocating improved construction, maintenance and preparedness practices. Visit www.DisasterSafety.org for more information about creating resilient communities and the FORTIFIED Home™ program.